Since 1986, the ISSP has provided high-quality data on attitudes and behaviors on important societal issues such as family, health, work, religion, the role of government, social inequality, the environment, national identity and citizenship, social networks, or leisure and sports.
The newly launched ISSP User Conference Series is designed to provide a platform for the various global research activities based on cross-national ISSP data. It aims to stimulate exchanges between individual researchers, to expand the ISSP research community, to increase the ISSP’s visibility and to inform the global policy discussions on important societal issues.
The ISSP User Conference will be held once a year and will focus on a different main theme each year, starting with Social Inequality in 2022.
As part of its 40th anniversary, the ISSP is hosting an
ISSP Methods Webinar on the
‘Basics of Cross-Country and Cross-Time Analysis of Survey Data‘
27 March 2025 from 12:30-14:00 (CET) with Prof. Dr. Bart Meuleman (KU Leuven)
Bart Meuleman is Professor of Sociology at KU Leuven (Belgium). His research focuses on cross-national comparisons of value and attitude patterns, such as ethnic prejudice, egalitarianism and support for the welfare state.
Many international survey projects, such as ISSP, have the ambition to make comparisons over time as well as over space. Social scientists are typically interested to find out whether the preferences and behaviour of populations differ across territorial countries and evolve over time, but also whether and why the time trends vary cross-nationally. During its 40 years of existence, the ISSP collected a massive amount of data that can be used to answer such questions. Yet, despite the wealth of data, few studies actually fully exploit the opportunities of combining cross-time and cross-country comparisons.
This webinar discusses statistical tools for combining cross-time and cross-country comparisons. Thereby, we focus on a data structure that is common in large international survey projects: cross-national repeated cross-sectional data. I show how a specific version of the multilevel approach – the societal growth curve model – can be instrumental for mapping and explaining evolutions across countries, taking individual differences into account. The multilevel model is an extension of the regression model and partitions the variation of the dependent variable into components that can be attributed to various levels (e.g., the individual, time or country level). This feature not only allows separating the impact of individual and contextual characteristics, but also makes it possible to distinguish between cross-sectional and longitudinal effects of contextual variables.
The multilevel approach is illustrated using an empirical application studying the dynamics of perceived ethnic threat (Callens & Meuleman, 2024). This study analyses data from three rounds of the ISSP National Identity module (1993-2015). By applying societal growth curve models, we investigate the impact of nationalism as well as contextual indicators of group conflict.
Participation in this webinar presupposes basic knowledge of regression analysis. Prior experience with multilevel modelling is not required.
Callens, M. S., & Meuleman, B. (2024). Can nationalism and group conflict explain cultural and economic threat perceptions? Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from the ISSP (1995–2013). International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 65(2), 205-228. https://doi.org/10.1177/00207152231177622
Past Events
3rd ISSP User Conference: “Celebrating 40 Years of the International Social Survey Programme”
Date: November 25, 2024
A big thank you to all participants for their exceptional contributions, and congratulations once again to the winners of the Best Paper Award Matthias Penker and Rebecca Wardana for this well-deserved recognition! If you could not attend or would like to revisit the event, you can access the full program here: PDF
2nd ISSP User Conference: “Environment”
Date: December 4, 2023
A warm thank you to all who joined us for the 2nd ISSP User Conference, centered around the theme of “Environment”. The conference, held on December 4, 2023, featured engaging presentations and dynamic discussions. If you couldn’t attend or would like to revisit the event, you can access the full program here.
1st ISSP User Conference: ‘Social Inequality‘
Date: December 12, 2022
The 1st ISSP User Conference focused on “Social Inequality” and took place on December 12, 2022. If you missed it or would like to review the program, you can find it here.